Prudential Singapore’s chatbot provides information specific to customers’ life insurance plans

Prudential Singapore’s industry-first intelligent chatbot provides information specific to customers’ life insurance plans

askPRU part of Prudential’s digital roadmap to transform customer experience


SINGAPORE, 31 August 2017 – As part of Prudential’s customer-centric approach, the life insurer has launched an industry-first chatbot that can provide its Financial Consultants with real-time information specific to their customers’ life insurance plans.

Named askPRU, the cognitive-powered chatbot is built on IBM Watson technology and integrated into Prudential’s backend systems. It is able to retrieve instantly data such as a customer’s policy cash value, policy premium due date and status of submitted claims, among others. As askPRU operates round the clock, Prudential’s Financial Consultants can communicate with the chatbot via a mobile application at any time of the day to obtain information pertaining to their customers’ insurance plans, enabling them to be more productive and more responsive.

Using IBM Watson’s Conversation Service, askPRU has been trained by NCS’ data scientists1 to understand non-scripted questions, probe users to get to the intent of their queries and deliver responses in a way that simulates human conversations.

Since the pilot launch of askPRU in July, more than half of Prudential’s 4,000 Financial Consultants have started to use the chatbot. Ms. Theresa Nai, Chief
Operating Officer at Prudential Singapore, said, askPRU is part of Prudential’s commitment to continuously improve the service experience for its customers.

“In today’s fast-paced, time-starved environment, our customers do not have the patience to wait for information. With askPRU, our Financial Consultants can now get faster access to customer-specific information and respond to their customers’ queries even more promptly. askPRU is one of the ways in which we digitally enable our Financial Consultants so they are equipped to meet increasing consumer demands and expectations,” said Ms Nai.

askPRU complements PRUONE Express, an enhanced digital point-of-sales portal, to help Prudential’s Financial Consultants engage their customers more efficiently. For instance, PRUONE Express is able to generate a detailed quotation in just three seconds and uses the latest technologies, such as SmartData Capture and Fingerprint Authentication, to facilitate a quicker and more effective consultation and sales process. Launched earlier this month, all of Prudential’s Financial Consultants currently have access to PRUONE Express to complete their sales process and to submit new policy requests.

askPRU to potentially reduce call volume at Prudential’s Contact Centre by 30 per cent

Apart from improving customer experience, askPRU also creates operational efficiencies for the life insurer. Prudential estimates that approximately 30 per cent of its Financial Consultants’ queries received by its Contact Centre consultants today can be answered by askPRU. With frequently-asked queries channeled to the chatbot, Prudential’s Contact Centre consultants will be able to focus on handling more complex enquiries and provide a better service to its Financial Consultants and customers.

Designed as a standalone mobile application, askPRU was developed in collaboration with NCS Pte Ltd (NCS), IBM Watson and Nokomai Studios. IBM Watson is a cognitive computing technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of structured and unstructured data, such as text and images.

Mr. Chia Wee Boon, Chief Executive Officer of NCS, said, “We are pleased to work with Prudential to develop a cognitive-powered chatbot that provides responsive, 24/7 support to its Financial Consultants. Notably, the integration of the chatbot to Prudential’s core backend systems ensures that there is always a reliable and consistent source of information available, which translates to the Financial Consultants and their customers having instant access to accurate, real-time information.”

Mr. Kenny Hay, Director of Cloud, IBM ASEAN, said, “The way in which customer relationships are built is constantly evolving. Technology such as IBM Watson has cognitive capabilities that often serve to augment human intelligence and abilities, supporting Prudential’s Financial Consultants. The pathway to self-service in real time can certainly bring about huge growth opportunities for forward-thinking businesses.”

Ms. Mae Urquhart, Director of Nokomai Studios, said, “It is a privilege to work with Prudential in transforming the data-driven expertise of NCS and IBM into an intuitive, engaging experience for the life insurer’s Financial Consultants. In particular, the close collaboration with Prudential’s Financial Consultants was crucial in the successful development of askPRU.”

About Prudential Assurance Company Singapore (Pte) Ltd

Prudential Assurance Company Singapore (Pte) Ltd is one of the top life insurance companies in Singapore, serving the financial and protection needs of the country’s citizens for 86 years. The company has an AA Financial Strength Rating from leading credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s, with S$31.5 billion funds under management as at 31 December 2016. It delivers a suite of well-rounded product offerings in Protection, Savings and Investment through multiple distribution channels including a network of more than 4,000 financial consultants.

About NCS

NCS is a member of the Singtel Group and the leading information, communications and technology (ICT) service provider with presence in over 20 countries. NCS delivers end-to-end ICT solutions to help governments and enterprises realise business value through digital transformation and the innovative use of technology. Its unique delivery capabilities include consulting, applications development, systems integration, outsourcing, infrastructure management and portal solutions. It also provides mobility, social networking, business analytics and cloud computing services. For more information, please visit www.ncs.com.sg.

About IBM Watson

Watson represents a new era in computing called cognitive computing, where systems understand the world in a way more similar to humans: through senses, learning, and experience. Watson continuously learns from previous interactions, gaining in value and knowledge over time. With the help of Watson, organizations are harnessing the power of cognitive computing to transform industries, help professionals do their jobs better, and solve important challenges.

As part of IBM’s strategy to accelerate the growth of cognitive computing, Watson is open to the world, allowing a growing community of developers, students, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts to easily tap into the most advanced and diverse cognitive computing platform available today. Watson solutions are being built, used, and deployed in more than 45 countries and across 20 different industries. For more information on IBM Watson, visit ibm.com/Watson. Join the conversation at #ibmwatson.

About Nokomai Studios

Nokomai Studios is a boutique UI/UX digital consultancy specialising in developing customer-centric digital transformation projects. Over its 11-year history, Nokomai has delivered award-winning experiences in mobile, portal, ecommerce and marketing solutions.



For media enquiries, please contact:

Prudential Singapore
Tan Ping Ping
DID: +65 6704 7033
Email: tan.ping.ping@prudential.com.sg Michelle Tan
DID: +65 6539 5816
Email: michelle.yz.tan@prudential.com.sg

NCS
Joan Hung
DID: +65 6556 6930
Email: joanhung@ncs.com.sg Ong Fei Fei
DID: +65 6556 5661
Email: feifei@ncs.com.sg

IBM
Jean-Claire Rozario
DID: +65 6418 3723
Email: jeanroz@sg.ibm.com  


1 NCS’ data scientists used Prudential’s database of over 1,000 historical question-and-answer pairs to train askPRU to accurately determine customers’ intent and quickly generate accurate answers. NCS also integrated askPRU to Prudential’s core backend system, providing Prudential’s financial consultants with reliable, real-time and consistent information.

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